Hinged doors



Aug.- 13, 1929.

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iii-2 R. v. HARTY HING'ED DOORS Filed Feb. 28. 1927 Aug. 13, 1929.

Patented Aug. 13, 1929.

' UNITED STATES RALPH V. HARTY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

H INGED DOORS.

Application filed February 28, 1927. Serial No. 171,656.

This invention relates to hinged doors and particularly relates to hinged folding doors.

One object of the invention is to provide hinges that will adapt heavy doors to undergo a very free swinging movement.

Another object is to provide means for guiding one of a pair of hingedly connected folding doors so as to assure a proper folding or unfolding of said doors as they are opened or closed, and, so as to permit the doors to be rapidly motor-operated wlthout undue strain upon the doors and without violent impact between them in reaching their folded positions.

Still another object is to so mount a pair of hingedly connected folding doors that a continuous pintle pin engaging the hinges of one of said doors will establish and maintain proper alignment of the hinges of the other door.

The provision upon the outermost of a pair of folding doors of a roller or the like to travel upon a surface over which the door swings is also an object of the invention, and particularly so in the case of motor-driven folding doors.

A further object is to provide an adjustment for each of a plurality of co-axial hinges mounting a heavy door so as to distribute the load to said hinges substantially equally.

A still further object is to adapt the hinge plates mounting a door to act as a strong reinforcement for the door.

These and various other objects the invention attains by the construction hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is an interior view of a pair of folding doors mounted in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is an exterior view of said doors.

Figure 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Figure 1 showing a guide means for one of the doors.

Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken on line 44 of Figure 3 further illustrating said guide means and showing the hinge arrangement.

Figure 5 is an elevational view of one of the primary hinges, partly in section on line 55 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a similar section taken on line 6-6 of Figure 4 and detailing another of the hinges.

Figure 7 is a vertical sectional view taken upon the line 7-7 of Figure 1, showing an anti-friction member carried by the outer folding door at its bottom edge and showinga track member engageable by said antifriction member under certain conditions.

Figure 8 is a cross sectional view of the same taken upon the line 8-8 of Figure 7.

In these views the reference characters 1 and 2 designate a pair of folding doors adapted to jointly close (or partially close) a doorway 3. The door 1 is hinged, as will presently appear, to one of the jambs 4 of said doorway and the door 2 is hinged to the free edge of the door 1. 'Upon the jamb 4, within the building to which the doorway 3 gives access, there is mounted a facing plate 5, formed preferably of steel and extending the full height of the doorway. To said plate is secured a suitable number of hinge plates 6, preferably malleable castings, four thereof being shown in the described embodiment of the invention. Each plate 6 is integrally formed with a pair of vertically spaced, alined bearings 7 and 7' and a hinge pin 8 is engaged with each pair of said bearings. The door 1 carries hinge plates 9, preferably castings, corresponding in number to the plates 6, each formed at one end with an integral bearing 10 mounted upon the pin 8 between the bearings 7 and 7 Each plate 9 has an offset portion 11 between its ends, seating against the adjacent edge of the door 1 as best seen in Figure 4, and adaptin the plate 9, while mounted interiorly, to be secured to the exterior face of said door. Across the full width of the exterior face of the door 1, reinforcing plates 12 are extended, the inner end of each thereof being overlapped by the exterior portion of a hinge plate 9. Similar plates 12 are attached interiorly to said door, and project toward the hinge axis to overlap the interior portions of the plates 9. Bolts 12 or other suitable fastenings are extended through door 1 attaching the plates 9, 12 and 12, to said door.

The door 1 at its free edge, exteriorly carries a suitable number of hinge plates 13, (preferably malleable castings) each formed with an integral pair of vertically spaced bearings 14, seating against the outer ends of the plates 12, and through all of said bearings a hinge pin 15 extends substantially the full height of the door. A plurality of hinge straps 16 equal in number to the plates 13 are exteriorly mounted upon the door 2, extending across the full width thereof, and are formed at their 1nner ends with bearings 17 mounted upon the pin 15 between the pairs of bearings 14.

The described construction is particularly applicable for mounting heavy doors, the weight of which should be equally distributed to all of the hinges. It is desirable also in mounting heavy doors, to minimize friction arising both from downward pressure due to the weight ofthe doors and from radial pressure due to the unbalanced application of such weight to the hinges. To meet these conditions, it is preferred to e1nploy the hinge structures shown in detail in Figures 5 and 6. Referring first to Figure 5, it will be seen that the bearmgs 7 and 7 are formed with cylindrical chambers 18 to receive the end portions of the pin 8. WVithin each of said chambers is arranged an ordinary ball bearing member 19 surrounding the pin. The chamber 18 of the lower bearing has a fully closed bottom seating the pin 8 and also seating a coiled spring 20, surrounding the pin and yieldably supporting the lowerbearing member 19. A washer 21, surmounting said lower bearing member takes the weight and load of the bearing 10 and maintains a proper clearance between said bearing and the bearing 7. The bearing 7 is formed with an opening 22 at its lower end affording a clearance to the pin 8, and the bearing member 19 in said bearing seats upon an annular shoulder by which the opening 22 is formed. The chamber 18 of the bearing 7 is preferably filled with grease or other suitable lubricant and said bearing is surmounted by a removable cap 23 closing said chamber.

Each plate 6 is secured in its position of use by a plurality of bolts 24 and for the purpose of adjustment the plate is vertically slotted, as indicated at 24L to receive one or more ofsaid bolts. As shown, there are two of the slots 249, one in each end portion of the plate and in mounting the doors, the

lates are initially tentatively secured by bolts loosely engaging said slots. When the door is in place, it is blocked'up against the top of the doorway and the bolts are then made tight in the slots 24:. Finally, the remaining bolts are applied. The springs 20 will yield sufiiciently to insure a substantially equal distribution of'the load to each of the hinges.

Referring now to the disclosure of Figure 6, the lower of each pair of bearings 14 is threaded to receive a hollow plug 25. Upon saidv plug seats a coiled spring 26, yieldably supporting a ballbearing member 27, and a seat for the bearing 17. Each upper hearing 14 receives a ball-bearing member 29 resting upon a washer 30 seating on the bearing 17 and a centrally apertured cap 31 closes the upper end of each of upper bearings. The pin 15 passes freely through the plug 25, spring 26, bearing members 27 and 29, washers 28 and 30 and cap 31.

hen a door equipped with the described. hinges has been installed, the screw plugs 25 may be adjusted to raise each bearing 17 clear of the underlying bearing 14 and thus assure substantially equal distribution of load to each hinge plate 13. Said plugs may then be secured against turning by set screws 32.

It is desirable to so guide the doors 1 and 2 that their opening or closing movement may be easily accomplished by a force applied to either door, such a provision being particularly necessary when the doors are motor-driven. Thus a guide rod 38 is pivotally connected at one end to a bracket 34 interiorly secured to the door 2 near the juncture of its upper and free edges, the other end of said rod being pivotally supported at a suitable distance inward from the door by a bracket 35 or the like. Thus when the doors swing open or shut the free edge of the door 2 is compelled by the rod 33 to travel inthe circular arc of which said rod forms a radius, compelling the doors to properly fold or unfold. It is to be noted that the swinging guide rod not only definitely assures a proper folding or unfolding of the doors as they open or close but further prevents any violent impact between the, two doors as their folded relation is established. That is to say, there is a slight clearance between the doors in. the folded position (shown in dash lines in Figure 4) and by virtue of the guide rod, this clearance is increased by any movement of the doors from said position, whether it be a closing or a further opening movement. The guide rod is particularly eifective in avoiding any initial locking action of the door 2 upon the door 1, when power is applied to the door 1 to close the "doors. 1

Ordinarily the doors, when properly hung, will have an ample clearance from the floor (or pavement) above which said doors swing. If, however, the doors are subjected to rough usage or are heavily strained by an operating mechanism (not shown) there may arise a tendencytoward sagging of the door 2, particularly at its free edge. To avoid scraping of the door against the floor, in the event of such sagging, it is preferred to mount at the bottom of the door 2, near its free edge, a roller 36, (see Figures 7 and 8) which upon a slight sagging of said door will engage and travel upon a track 37 formed by an arcuate steel plate embedded washer 28 resting on said member forms a in the floor flush therewith. Preferably said roller is spherical, for the reason that its travel is not always transverse to its-axis and it is hence desirable to minimize friction resulting from contact with said track. The roller is journaled by pins 38 projecting from the lower ends of plates 39 secured to opposite sides of the door.

The described construction prevents the application of an abnormal proportion of the load to any one of the hinges and insures a very free travel of the doors to and from their closed positions.

The ball-bearin members 20, 21 27 and 29, minimize the riction arising both from the downwardly and the radially acting components of the door weight.

The coiled springs 20 and 26 afford the supported hinge bearings 10 and 17 a slight vertical play without appreciable loss of support. Thus the presence of said springs facilitates initial adjustment and avoids necessity for subsequent adjustment.

It will be noted that the hinge plates 9 extend sufiiciently beyond the door 1 to locate the hinge axis of said door a distance to one side of the doorway suificient to prevent any obstruction of the doorway by the doors when the latter are open.

An important feature of the invention is the unit connection established by the plates 12 and 12 between the hinge plates 9, and the hinge plates 13, mounting the pin 15. By virtue of this connection, when the in 15 is in place, properly aligning all of he bearings 14, it also assures proper alignment of all of the bearings 7 and 7 upon the several plates 6, since the latter are rigidly connected to the plates 13 by the members 12 and 12.

What I claim is 1. A hinge comprising a pair of hinge members having bearings arranged one above the other, an anti-friction seat for the upper bearing arranged within the lower bearing, a screw plug engaging the lower bearing for adjusting said seat vertically, and a sprin yieldably mounting said seat upon said p 11g.

2. A hinge member comprising upper and lower spaced bearings, anti-friction elements within each of said bearings, a cap closing the upper of said bearings and forming with the anti-friction element in said bearing a lubricant chamber, and means carried by the lower of said bearings for vertically adjusting the lower anti-friction element.

In testimony whereof I sign this specification.

RALPH V. HARTY. 

